Castle Bromwich Station

Location

The original Castle Bromwich station was opened on 10th
February 1842 on the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway's (B&DJR)
section of line between Lawley Street, Birmingham and Whitacre at the behest of
the Earl of Bradford, a local landowner. This section of the B&DJR was
initially authorised in 1836 with the bill originally envisaging the line
running from Derby via Whitacre to Stechford, and then from here, over the
London and Birmingham Railway's metals into Curzon Street station. London
traffic was intended to run from Whitacre to
Derby Junction (later known as
Hampton station) at Hampton in Arden and then to be taken forward by London
& Birmingham Railway (L&BR) services to Euston. The first section
opened was from Whitacre to Hampton where onward traffic to and from Birmingham
and London over L&BR rails commenced. However due to the high tolls charged
by the L&BR, and also the significant traffic delays experienced by
B&DJR travellers using the L&BR's services into Birmingham, the
B&DJR very quickly decided to built their own direct line to Birmingham.
However because their route needed to be terminated in Birmingham, they elected
to run along the Tame and Rea valleys to a new station in Lawley Street rather
than at Stechford as originally planned. Also known as the Tame Valley Railway,
this and the Birmingham & Gloucester railway were merged in 1846 with other
companies to become part of the Midland Railway.

The Station and its facilities

Castle Bromwich station was orientated roughly east to west
with east being on the Whitacre side of the station and west being on the
Lawley street side of the station. The station was located on the east side of
Chester Road and was provided with two platforms, with the two running lines
being located in between the two platform faces, and with its main passenger
facilities located on the down platform. The up platform was only provided with
waiting facilities reflecting the fact that the majority of traffic was to and
from Birmingham. As seen on the 1886 OS map
passengers requiring tickets to travel to stations east of Castle Bromwich
would cross via the road bridge, utilising steps located on either side of the
bridge. The station's goods facilities were limited being just a single siding
located to the rear of the down platform. Access by road to both the goods yard
and passenger facilities on the down platform were via a long drive off and
running parallel to the Chester Road. A signal box, located on the Whitacre
side of the up platform, had been erected to control the main line through the
station and movements into and out of the goods siding. So busy was the Tame
valley line to become that in 1902 the Midland Railway quadrupled the route
through Castle Bromwich. The installation of these two extra lines required the
station to be completely remodeled with the signal box being moved from the up
line to the down line.

In its new form Castle Bromwich retained its East to West
orientation but this time sited its principal building and entrance to face
directly on to Chester Road (see image 'mrcb34'). The two storey building was erected to
the south of the road bridge, with its upper storey facing on to Chester Road
and at ground level goods offices facing on to the goods yard (as seen in image
'mrcb1030'). The goods facilities were
expanded during the remodelling to include an additional siding, one following
more or less the line of the original siding, the other angled to follow the
yard's boundary yard to access a landing dock sited behind the weighbridge and
office. Terry Callaghan describes the architectural style of the building
fronting on to the Chester Road in Disused Stations as follows,
'Although built in brick there were occasional terra-cotta courses to
provide some fashionable distinction. The ridge of the roof was parallel to the
road and ended with two tall chimney stacks which were treated to terra-cotta
courses. The road frontage looked unbalanced with a large gable, topped with a
ball finial, facing the road towards its southern end and pierced by an
oeil-de-boeuf window; a much smaller but more elaborately designed gable, with
a similar window and a ball finial, was found towards the northern end. A
verandah was clasped between wing walls at each end of the building which were
capped by remarkably large ball finials. The building was entered via a triple
arcade. The two storey building viewed from the platform elevation was less
elaborate, but not without interest. Two asymmetrically placed gables projected
a short distance from the structure, one with a tall chimney stack springing
from it. Openings on this elevation were a mixture of complete and segmental
arches'.

The layout of the rebuilt station was unusual insofar that
when looked at in plan (see image 'mrcb1020a') it appeared as having two island
platforms with the four lines running on either side of the two islands with a
stand-alone platform sited to the north of the up platform. This stand-alone
platform was served by a single line ending at a buffer stop located just short
of the embankment leading up to the bridge carrying the Chester Road over the
railway. Adjacent to this single line and also ending in a buffer stop by the
embankment was a refuge siding accessed off the up slow line east of the
station. In fact each of the two island platforms only had one platform face
being used for passenger trains. The other side of both island platforms were
fenced off by railings as the track running on this side of the island
platforms were for use by goods traffic proceeding to and from Washwood Heath
Sidings and beyond. The down platform was numbered '1' (for passenger traffic
to Birmingham) and the up platform was numbered '2' (for traffic from
Birmingham). The standalone platform was numbered '3'. Both the up and down
platforms were provided with timber framed buildings with the down platform
having the larger structure as the majority of passengers leaving the station
(and therefore require waiting facilities) were bound for Birmingham. The
platform buildings had a roof line which continued as a cantilevered canopy to
the full depth of the platform and set at angle with the 'fall' of the canopy
and roof being to the rear of the buildings. The third platform had no such
structure on the platform.

The third stand-alone platform was allegedly to be used for
excursion traffic, but how this traffic was to be generated at the turn of the
20th century in what was still primarily a rural environment, is unclear to the
writer. The refuge siding located adjacent to the third platform was still
being used in the 1960s (as seen in image 'mrcb1032'). The station's booking office was
located at road level by the main entrance. Following the purchase of their
tickets passengers then gained access to their platform via a covered
footbridge which bridged all four lines. The covered passenger steps to both
the up and down platforms were at sited 90º to the covered footbridge as
can be seen in image 'mrcb1740'. A similar
set of steps which led down to the third 'excursion' platform was also
provided, as seen in the 1916 Ordnance Plan,
but by the 1960s this had been removed and reoriented as an open set of stairs
to run parallel with Chester Road. It has been suggested that this set of open
stairs was to provide access to the British Industries Fair Exhibition and
their length and angle of descent would support this theory (see iimage 'mrcb1031b').

Passenger and Goods Services

The timetable for March 1850 showed three trains from Castle
Bromwich to Derby and four trains to Birmingham Lawley Street on Mondays to
Saturdays with no service being available on Sundays. On 1st July 1879, a new
service began between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton via Sutton Park
which also called at Castle Bromwich. This used the Midland Railway's new route
to Walsall from a junction opened just short of a mile to the east of Castle
Bromwich. As stated above, during the last decades of the 19th century the Tame
valley line became a very busy main line for the Midland Railway handling
significant amounts of freight traffic as well as passenger traffic. The
expansion of Washwood Heath Sidings and New Street Station bearing testomony to
this expansion. The timetable for December 1895 showed Castle Bromwich as
having nineteen up and twenty-three down trains Monday to Saturday with none on
Sundays, of these eleven trains in each direction ran between Birmingham and
Wolverhampton. By July 1922 (which was the Midland Railway's last year of
independence prior to grouping), Castle Bromwich station was being served by
twenty-two up and nineteen down trains Monday to Saturday with again none on a
Sunday. Twenty-five years later, when the railways were nationalisation on 1st
January 1948, Castle Bromwich became under the juristiction of the London
Midland Region of British Railways. The timetable for the summer 1948 showed
twenty-three up and sixteen down trains Monday to Friday but with additional
services on Saturdays and for the first time, two trains calling in each
direction on a Sunday. The British Railways timetable for the winter of 1948
showed an ammended service with twenty-two up and twenty-one down services
Monday to Friday with a couple of extra trains on a Saturday. As would be
expected, trains calling at Castle Bromwich were in the main local return
services from Birmingham New Street to Derby, Leicester via Nuneaton Abbey
Street and to Walsall via Sutton Park. It was recorded that a few express
trains stopped here including the Worcester to York service.

The Railway Clearing House's 1929 Handbook of Railway
Stations states Castle Bromwich provided the general public and commerce
with a full set of services. These are recorded as: Goods traffic; Passenger
and Parcels traffic; Furniture Vans, Carriages, Portable Engines, and Machines
on Wheels; Live Stock; Horse boxes and Prize Cattle Vans; Carriages by
Passenger Trains (GPFLHC). There were no cranage facilities provided in the
goods yard so merchants would either have to man handle the loading/unloading
of goods themselves or, if necessary, bring in a mobile crane. The British
Industries Fair (BIF) exhibition centre opened in 1920 and located alongside
the railway to the north of the station. In 1933 the BIF annual fair exhibited
the first diesel train in the country which had arrived on its maiden run from
Euston. In 1934 LMS 6P 4-6-0 No 6100 'The Royal Scot', complete with it with
American issued large lamp and bell, was exhibited at the British Industrial
Fair's siding located adjacent to the station. From 1920 until 1960 (with the
exception of 1925 and the period 1941 to 1946), exhibitions lasting two weeks
were held every year at this fore runner of the NEC. Thousands of people
travelled to these fairs by service train and by special excursions making
Castle Bromwich a very busy station. With the opening of the British Industries
Fair in 1956, British Railways operated new Diesel Multiple Units to carry
visitors to the event on a shuttle service between Birmingham New Street and
Castle Bromwich.

Closure

The 'Beeching report of 1963 recommended the
withdrawal of all stopping services between Birmingham and Derby and the
closure of the stations at which they called. Despite the identification of
this route for closure Castle Bromwich was, surprisingly, not named in the list
of stations to be closed. The summer 1962 timetable showed that the station had
a good service of thirty-two up and twenty-eight down trains Monday-to-Friday;
it served a large residential area close to the centre of Birmingham. The Major
Trunk Routes for Development report of 1964 (follow up to the Reshaping of
British Railways) recognised the importance of the Tame valley line as part of
a north-east and south-west trunk route, and it was recommended for retention
and improvement. On 9th September 1964 formal notice was published of the
proposal to withdraw Derby  Tamworth  Birmingham local trains, but
it took until 16th August 1967 for Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for
Transport to give her approval, reprieving one of the stations. Castle Bromwich
station finally closed to passenger services on 4th March 1968.

Our thanks to Terry Callaghan of
www.disused-stations.org.uk for additional information on the station.

British Industries Fair (B.I.F.)

This huge trade fair began at premises next to Castle
Bromwich station in 1920 (it had been running in London since 1915). Its theme
was demonstrating the wonders of British products, attracting visitors from
around the world. Held for two weeks each year, at one point it was officially
the most visited attraction in the country. Railways were part of the fair,
with exhibits inside and a chance to showcase vehicles in use on the special
shuttles that ran from Birmingham. DMUs were used for this from 1955. However
by the 1950s, many of the exhibitors were travelling to trade fairs abroad
rather than expecting foreign buyers to travel to the UK, and the declining
number of exhibitors meant the final fair was held in 1957. The site became the
Castle Vale housing estate.

1955 - Derby Lighweights borrowed from
Lincolnshire

Three drivers and four twin diesel units were sent from
Derby, the units arriving on April 18th. The shuttle ran between May 2nd -
13th, they made nine trips a day between Birmingham and Castle Bromwich. The
services were worked by E79030/E79622 + E79031/E79623 but on Saturday, 9th May,
and when some special parties were conveyed, E79032/E79624 were added to make a
six car unit. As far as known the fourth set was not used, and remained for the
whole of the period in Saltley Carriage sheds.

1956 - Met-Camm Lightweights

Local company Met-Camm (who constructed their units in
Saltley) requested that their units be used for the shuttles during the April
23rd - May 4th opening. The Eastern Region agreed that units being built for
them could be used there first, which resulted in E79061-3 with E79277-9 being
used. Afterwards they were sent to Derby.

1957 - Rolls Royce powered Met-Camms

At the end of 1956 the B.I.F. organisers requested that a
63'6" unit be exhibited at the 1957 fair. Derby would be building the suburban
sets for the Westerm Region (Class 116s) at the time, these were considered
unsuitable for exhibition. Instead thoughts turned to the Rolls Royce engined
set 50000/56000, to which the ER agreed. However with just weeks to go the
organisers then decided that on account of site difficulties displaying a unit
in the exhibition would not be practicable, and the vehicles were exhibited at
a Rolls Royce Exhibition from 6th to 11th May 1957 instead. Late in 1956 there
were huge problems with fuel oil supplies, and the LMR was considering not
using diesel units for the 1957 shuttles. Luckily by the start of April 1957
the situation had improved, so the decision was taken to go ahead, using the
Rolls-Royce engined Met-Camm units. Longsight sets 50134/56090, 50136/56092 and
50137/56093 were used on the Birmingham New St. to Castle Bromwich shuttles
from the 6th to the 17th May. On the Saturday (11th) additional services were
worked by 101s 50207/56059 and 50208/56090 fresh from Saltley. The 111s were
back in Manchester by the 19th.

Our thanks to Stuart Mackay of www.railcar.co.uk for the
information on the DMU services to the British Industries Fair.